Walter L. Hill
As a member of one of the well established business enterprises of Denison, Walter L. Hill belongs to the representative citizens of Crawford county whose success is due to their own industry, energy and perseverance. He is a member of the firm of Hill Brothers, dealers in marble and granite monuments, which is one of the best known concerns of the kind in this part of the state.
He was born in Muscatine county, Iowa, November 22, 1866, a son of Rufus L. and Margaret E. (Wayt) Hill, record of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
Walter L. Hill spent his early life in Iowa but grew to manhood from eleven years of age on a farm near Alma, Nebraska. He attended the public schools and the Methodist Seminary at Orleans, Nebraska, also graduating from the commercial college of that place. He then traveled through Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska for a year or two, after which he began learning the marblecutter's trade. In February, 1896, he came to Denison and established himself in the monument business, which he conducted for a year and a half, when he sold out to his father. He worked for his father for a time and then removed to Colorado Springs, where he followed his. trade for five years.
Returning to Denison, he continued to work at his trade until 1908, when he and his brother, Albert R., bought their father's interest in the business, which they have since conducted under the title of Hill Brothers. The firm possesses excellent facilities and has gained a large patronage through different parts of the west, turning out some of the finest work which is to be seen in this part of the country.
On the 13th of September, 1888, Mr. Hill was united in marriage at Phillipsburg, Kansas, to Miss Elizabeth Catharine Bull, a native of Page county, Iowa. and a daughter of Cornelius and Nancy (McConnell) Bull. Her father was a native of Connecticut and the mother of Illinois. They removed to Page county, Iowa, and lived for a time at Clarinda, Shenandoah and Coin but are now making their home at Summerfield, Kansas. They had six children, Elizabeth, Harry P., Frederick, Alice, Harriet and Charlotte.
Mr. Bull is a son of W. H. and Phoebe (Stow) Bull, both of whom were natives of Milford, New Haven county. Connecticut, the former born in 1817 and the latter in 1820. In their family were five children, namely: Cornelius A., the father of Mrs. Hill; Charlotte. the wife of Robert Overstreet, of Galesburg, Illinois; Philip H., also a resident of Galesburg; Mrs. Augusta Campbell, of Knoxville, Illinois; and Isaac T., of Shenandoah, Iowa.
Mrs. Hill's maternal grandparents were William and Mary McConnell, both of whom were born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1814. In their family were nine children, five of whom are still living, namely: William, a resident of Pawnee, Nebraska; Mrs. Mary Miles, of Nelson, Nebraska; Mrs. Margaret Chapman, of Cambridge, Illinois; Marshall, of Woodhull, Illinois; and Mrs. Nancy Bull, the mother of Mrs. Hill.
Eight children came to bless the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hill, namely: Frederick A., Lillian, Irene, Mildred, Jessie, Walter L. Jr., Robert P. and Dorothy. Frederick A., the eldest, died at the age of three and one-half years.
Mrs. Hill and the children are members of the Baptist church but Mr. Hill is not identified with any religious denomination. He is prominently connected with fraternal orders, being a member of the Odd Fellows lodge at Denison, and also of the Woodmen of the World, the Improved Order of Red Men and the Mystic Workers of the World. He is, moreover, a member of the General Stone Cutters Union. Politically he gives his support to the republican party. A man of marked industry and fine business ability, he is also the possessor of those qualities of character which invite confidence and friendship, and few citizens of Denison stand higher in the estimation of acquaintances than Walter L. Hill.
Source: History of Crawford County, Iowa. Vol. II. Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911.